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Hex Map | Cryptidography

Claw Solutions (2010)
By BARRY THOMPSON  |  December 15, 2010
3.5 3.5 Stars

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The one-sheet for Hex Map's debut consists of a vague numeral code and an infograph of angular, multi-colored lines connecting to overlapping circles that match songs with their amalgamations of spiritual antecedents — "The Melvins," "Ho-Ag," "Nine Inch Nails," and "A Sad Man in His Bedroom," to name a few. I can't decide how to feel about this infograph. Impressed? Offended? Afraid? I anticipate experiencing similar emotions, albeit on a grander scale, while traversing the desolate, crumbling remnants of society after we survive the imminent apocalypse. And indeed, life in the End of Days' wake is the focus of several Cryptidography tracks. Hex Map also sing about cryptozoology, the study of mythical or non-existent animals. On the skulking and sinister "Hokkaido Wolf," that would be an extinct Japanese wild canine; on "Zeuglodon," it's a giant, be-tentacled, mass-murdering bat. But if these weighty overtones sound a bit much, don't panic. Mike Gintz and Nick Burgess, at one time known as Clawjob, have recorded a counterintuitively accessible and magically schizoid record. Ripping, macabre garage metal accented by inconspicuous synth bits that eyeball the cosmos, the disc is prog-rock reimagined by Danzig. Or Local H playing industrial goth. Or just bad-ass.
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  Topics: CD Reviews , Boston rock, music review
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ARTICLES BY BARRY THOMPSON
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  •   HEX MAP | CRYPTIDOGRAPHY  |  December 15, 2010
    The one-sheet for Hex Map's debut consists of a vague numeral code and an infograph of angular, multi-colored lines connecting to overlapping circles that match songs with their amalgamations of spiritual antecedents.
  •   FRANZ NICOLAY REBOOTS  |  November 30, 2010
    I’m a little worried that this interview could kill Franz Nicolay.
  •   LOVE IN STOCKHOLM | A KING'S RANSOM  |  November 30, 2010
    If your judgment on Love in Stockholm were based solely on their penchant for matching suits and shades, their humble origins as BU undergrads who formed a band in order to obtain "free beer and girls," and their parody video of the Lonely Island's "I'm on a Boat," you'd conclude that they're tools.
  •   INTERVIEW: KEVIN SMITH  |  November 29, 2010
    Motherfucking Kevin Smith, who comes to the House of Blues next Thursday, can tell a story as if it were his motherfucking job. Which it basically is.
  •   RUNNER AND THE THERMODYNAMICS CATCH UP WITH THEIR PAST  |  November 16, 2010
    As sagas of rock-and-roll near-misses go, there's a cinematic quality to Runner and the Thermodynamics, who in the early 2000s channeled their reverence for '70s arena rock into a power-pop detonation that briefly cracked the glass ceiling of the music biz.

 See all articles by: BARRY THOMPSON

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